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Bedford-Stuyvesant Neighborhood Architecture

I'm Australian and was looking to buy a brownstone in Brooklyn and was blown away by the Victorian architecture in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area.
I took a number of photos and put them here: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/BES/BedStuy.htm
I found that a 2 family typically costs around 400K. Has anybody else got any images of architecture in Bed-Stuy or the surrounding area?

ozzies

yes, there really are a lot (heaps, we would say) of ozzies turning up in NY. I hear the accent all the time. London used to be the traditional haunt of expat ozzies (with up to 200,000 of them there) but increasingly all major foreign cities have a few and the NY and LA populations have really swelled during the last boom. We really like our "walkabout".
Thanks for the encouragement on Bed-Stuy.
cheers tom

The Macon branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, on Lewis Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, reopened after a $2 million renovation. (Photo: Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times)

The Macon branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, one of 18 Brooklyn libraries that opened from 1901 to 1923 through the support of the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, reopened on Thursday afternoon after a two-year, $2 million renovation.

The library, a two-story, neoclassical building at 361 Lewis Avenue with original fireplaces, oak paneling, alcoves and wooden benches, opened on July 15, 1907, in a ceremony that drew about 2,000 visitors, according to the library’s records. The Macon branch has provided nearly continuous service over the past century to Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“We are pleased to reopen Macon Library as a mainstay for access to information, books and materials for the Bedford-Stuyvesant community” said Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Among the more prominent people who have used the library over the decades were Joan Maynard (1928-2006), the founder of what is now the Weeksville Heritage Center, which honors the memory of a 19th-century community of free blacks; John Steptoe (1950-1989), a writer and illustrator of children’s books; and Donna Hill, a romance novelist born in 1955.

The library, which is 17,968 square feet, has undergone previous renovations, in 1948 and 1949 and again from 1973 to 1977, when the interior was modernized and an auditorium constructed. The latest renovation, started in June 2006, was financed by the City Council and the Bloomberg administration.

The upgrades include a new African-American Heritage Center, focusing on local history; a space for infants and preschool children; a “complete face-lift” of the interior, including machines that allow users to check out materials on their own; and new lighting and electric fixtures.

While most blocks in Bed-Stuy contain rows of brownstones, occasionally interrupted by new construction or vacant lots, Quincy Street between Bedford and Nostrand is different. The housing stock on this stretch of Quincy features several examples of detached and semi-detached Victorian houses that look like they migrated north from Kensington or Ditmas Park.
Unfortunately, few of these homes have survived intact into the 21st century. But with a little imagination, you can look beneath the siding and additions to see what used to be.

Brownstones near Bedford Ave. are more typical of the neighborhood.

Victorian brick with Mansard roof, quoining and dentils. The porch rails and square brick columns are not original, and the garage was added later.

Detached Victorian homes victimized by aluminum siding.

New construction that looks like it landed from Mars, or possibly Atlanta.